Belarusian dictator is in the top-7 of the worst in XXI century

The Russian media-group RossBusinessConsulting included Lukashenka in the list of the world’s most odious rulers.

Despite it is XXI century around, there still remain states, the rulers of which have unlimited powers and may be called dictators.

RBC selected the most prominent of the incumbent dictators.

The ranking is topped by the ruler of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. Also in the list are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Islam Karimov, Hugo Chavez, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Kim Jong-un.

The Belarusian dictator is forth on the list.

This is how the ranking’s authors characterize him:

The disregard to human rights and other liberal values did not allow the mustached father-of-the-nation to visit the Olympic Games in London: he is on the list of the people, not allowed to enter the European Union’s countries.

Lukashenka has come to power in 1994, having won the presidential elections with an anti-corruption, anti-nomenclatural program. After being elected he repeatedly reshaped the Constitution, according to which he can now stay in power for unlimited number of presidential terms. He has also amended the Criminal Code: Belarusians are forbidden to criticize the public order, the country, the ministers and all the more so – the ruler.

Notorious is his fight with the opposition: his political opponents either disappear under mysterious circumstances, or end up in prison. Protests are severely dispersed. The former chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich has been deprived of the right for a pension for participating in oppositional activities.

Lukashenka won the latest presidential elections in 2010 with the officials result of 79.65%, although according to the exit-polls’ data he only scored around 40%. The rest of the presidential candidates refused to accept the results. Discontented Belarusians went out to the streets in a large protest action, which was brutally dispersed by police and interior troops. Lukashenka himself earlier admitted the facts of falsifications: “More than 93.5% voted for Lukashenka. But they said, it is not a European number, so we made it less. This is what really happened. And if we start recounting the ballots, I will not know what to do with them at all”.

In 2011 the country’s citizens attempted to resist the authoritarian regime by the means of silent protests, planned via social media. They would gather in squares on an agreed day and time, without any slogans or banners and start clapping their hands not saying a word. But even such harmless actions were banned in Belarus: the protesters got arrested by people in mufti, whereas the groups in the social networks were deleted.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

US Department of State insists on release of political prisoners

The release of political prisoners remains high on the United State's agenda in relation to Belarus.

A delegation of the US Department of State led by Daniel Rosenblum, a coordinator of US Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, was on a visit to Minsk on January 27-29.

A number of meetings in the ministries of foreign affairs, healthcare, labour and social protection were held. On the last day of the visit, Mr Rosenblum met with seven leaders of Belarusian opposition organisations and movements: Iryna Vershtard (Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada), Syarhei Kalyakin (Belarusian Left Party Fair World), Anatol Lyabedzka (United Civil Party), Alyaksandr Milinkevich (For Freedom movement), Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu (Tell the Truth civil champaign), Vital Rymasheuski (organising committee to create Belarusian Christian Democracy party) and Alyaksei Yanukevich (Belarusian Popular Front).

UCP leader Anatol Lyabedzka spoke with BelaPAN news agency about the meeting.

“The meeting took 2.5 hours. It was for dessert, as Mr Rosenblum said,” he noted. According to the politician, the situation in Belarus and development prospects were discussed. The participants spoke about political prisoners, high-profile disappearances, free elections and a dialogue with the authorities.

Lyabedzka says the release of political prisoners as well as human rights observance by Minsk and holding free elections remains high on the US agenda in relation to Belarus. “Rymasheuski and I emphasised the importance of carrying out free elections. If we don't achieve it, names of political prisoners will just change after another election campaign,” the politician said. He also noted that the issue of the abducted people cannot be put on the shelve. “The representative of the Department of State wrote it down in his notebook,” Lyabedzka said.

The UCP leader prepared three questions for Mr Rosenblum: “What will new US Secretary of State John Kerry emphases in the message to Belarus?” “Are American analysts right when they say about a possible agreement between Obama and Putin on giving control over the post-Soviet countries to the Kremlin?” and “Did the US government or embassy have contacts with a group of American analysts before their recent visit to Lukashenka?”

“To the first question, Mr Rosenblum answered that the situation would depend on Kerry's team, but we should not expect radical moves. The US policy towards Belarus will be consistent. The second answer was: there is a range of issues, in which the US and Russia cooperate and have a concerted position, in particular, fight against terrorism and deterring Iran and North Korea. There are also debate topics, such as the post-Soviet area. So, no arrangements between Obama and Putin can be expected. The third answer was: the analysts came on their own initiative, they didn't have any tasks and instructions,” Lyabedzka said.

“The visit by Rosenblum shows the interest of the United States in Belarus. It is good that an official of such a level is interested in our situation. We have an opportunity to ask questions and present our position without intermediaries,” the UCP leader said.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka: Teachers and doctors will be held strictly responsible

The ruler demanded that health care personnel “stopped whining”.

Lukashenka visited the Republic’s theoretical and practical center for neurology and neurosurgery today, Interfax reports.

“Enough whining that we have poor doctors. It is time for doctors to show results. Yes, we will increase the salaries, we will optimize ourselves, but we will demand a report”, - he claimed.

According to him, “everyone gets equal education, everyone is in the same conditions. That is teacher as well as doctors will be held strictly responsible”, - Lukashenka said.

The president claimed that by the year 2015 the Belarusian health care system must be optimized and everything must be put in order. “We need to settle everything down and optimize, so there is order in clinics. As it turns, we have created all these palaces, but if there is no doctor, no soul, what do we need these palaces for?”, - the ruler noted.

Lukashenka paid special attention to the necessity of development of the Belarusian health care school. “The school is the most important task for us. We have invested so much money, and that is why we should create these schools, but not to rest on our laurels”, - the ruler said. He also demanded to provide for the intergenerational continuity within the health care system, to prepare high qualification personnel and do not create obstacles in the work of young specialists. “Should we speak the medical language, if vessels get clogged, a clot forms, at it is the death”, - the ruler noted.

Lukashenka also spoke of the necessity for provide the country with the natural population increase already in 2015.

“We must reach the natural population increase by 2015 by all means, not including the external migration”, - he stated.

We would note that the salaries of Belarusian doctors and teachers in much lower than the ones of their colleagues in the neighboring countries.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka keeps holding Sannikau’s wife and son as hostages

They are not going to let Iryna Khalip out of Belarus.

A Russian Novaya Gazeta’s reporter and the wife of a former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau Iryna Khalip is not going to secretly escape Belarus, although the authorities are provoking her to do that.

The journalist, who was sentenced to freedom restriction after the events of 19 December 2010, has to stay in the city and be home after 10 p.m. However, Lukashenka is never tired of repeating the contrary: allegedly Iryna “simply does not want to” leave the country’s territory. Now his words were confirmed by the deputy Prosecutor General Aliaksei Stuk, Belsat reports.

“It is funny that everyone is trying to discuss the illiterate words of the deputy Prosecutor General. It seems to me that he does not have a legal education”, - Iryna Khalip notes. She reminded: the law on the procedures for entering and leaving the country provides that all the convicts, whether probationers or with a postponement, cannot leave the country’s territory. And Iryna Khalip was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with a two years postponement.

The editor of the Charter’97 web-site Natalia Radzina, another figurant of the 19 December case, thinks that the Prosecutor General’s office was forced to confirm Lukashenka’s words. “Actually, the prosecutor had to justify himself after Lukashenka’s statement which said that Iryan Khalip was allegedly free. It is obvious that Lukashenka lied. I can imagine what they thought [in the prosector’s office]: “What a fool! He lied and we have to justify ourselves…” That is why the prosecutor opted for vague wording: the court’s findings it is not stated that Iryna Khalip is forbidden to leave the country”, - Radzina emphasized. She believes that no one is going to let Iryna Khalip out. Even if she addresses the prosecutor’s office with a written appeal on the possibility of her travel abroad, the response will be negative.

“Lukashenka takes revenge at Andrei Sannikau, the strongest of his competitors, which was proved by the latest presidential elections. That is why he keeps his wife and son as hostages, since while they are in Belarus, Sannikau is restricted in his activities abroad”, - Radzina noted.

However, the journalist of Novaya Gazeta is going to write such an appeal. “At least to finish this comedy. I am so disgusted by all these people with their villainous lies that it will be a pleasure for me to put their faces right into their deceit one more time”, - she explained.

In Iryna Khalip’s opinion, Lukashenka’s statements about the freedom of her movement before the end of the punishment term are nothing but a provocation. The dictator, she thinks, hopes that Andrei Sannikau’s wife will try to leave, and handcuffs will be waiting for her after that.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lying is normal for official

A deputy prosecutor general said the sentence to Iryna Khalip does not contain direct prohibition on going abroad.

“According to the court decision, there are no obstacles to travelling abroad. She should contact the corrections office of Minsk's Partyzanski district police department. She is under supervision of this agency. Khalip should file there an application. The office chief will examine it and make his decision,” deputy prosecutor general of Belarus Alyaksei Stuk told BelaPAN news agency.

Journalist Iryna Khalip, the wife of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov who received political asylum in the UK, was found guilty of participating in mass disorders after the elections on December 19, 2010. In May 2011, she was given a two-year suspended sentence. She cannot leave Minsk. She must visit the police department for checks every week and must be at home after 10 p.m. The probation period expires on July 17. Khalip's case will be heared in the court again to decide if she should be released, sent to a penal colony or if a probation period should be extended.

Lukashenka said several times (in an interview with British journalists on October 9, 2012 and at a press conference on January 15, 2013) that Khalip could travel abroad and promised to give her such an opportunity.

The dictator said on January 15: “If you want to take her anywhere, go to the prosecutor general, take her and go. It's in my power. You can take her away. But she will choose to remain here.” Lukashenka said: “Iryna is not a silly woman. She understands that she is a victim of the regime today, but no one will remember her tomorrow. That's why she hasn't left the country.”

The deputy prosecutor general says Khalip's punishment is called “other kinds of criminal responsibility”. “It is her status,” he said. According to Alyaksei Stuk, the prosecutor general's office doesn't have any information regarding changes in her status after the press conference on January 15.

The deputy prosecutor general also turned attention to the fact that Khalip was not released under her own recognizance, but the court decision imposes certain restrictions on her.

The website charter97.org asked Iryna Khalip to comment on Stuk's statement.

“Lying is normal for officials of all ranks: from Lukashenka to a district prosecutor. It's funny to hear these clumsy attempts to break the web of Lukashenka's lies. Besides the ban on leaving the country, the court decision has another remarkable clause: I cannot go out after 10 p.m. This measure forbids me to go out of the town.

The only time I was allowed to leave Minsk for the last 18 moths was when I visited a penal colony in Navapolatsk for a long-term meeting with my husband. I was warned in the corrections office that there were no guarantees that my trip would be permitted. I was given a route schedule, similar to those that drivers have. I had to check on the route. Visiting Vitebsk instead of the penal colony in Navapolatsk would have been considered a violation. I remember perfectly that when I was registered in the corrections office of the Partyzanski district police department, I asked an inspector to explain the details of this factual house arrest, but he said to me honestly that it was legal nonsense. Belarusian officials are trying to hide this nonsense today,” the journalist says.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Dictator awards law enforcement officers involved in executing Kavalyou and Kanavalau

The law enforcement officers involved in the arrest and execution of Kavalyou and Kanavalau have been awarded.

Among the people awarded with the Order of Motherland, the Order for Service to the Motherland Award and medals for Bravery and for Distinction in Protecting Public Order are heads and investigators of the Investigation Committee, departments chiefs and officers of the main investigative department and the main criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, heads and officers of special counter-terrorism detachment Almaz, representatives of the forensic department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, blogger d-zholik writes.

The most valuable award – the Order of the Motherland III Class – was given to first deputy chairman of the Investigation Committee General Andrei Shved, who was a deputy prosecutor general and carried out the investigation in the case of Uladzsiau Kavalyou and Dzmitry Kanavalau.

The awards were given to the high-ranking officers of the Investigation Committee, who took part in a special issue of “Chelovek i Zakon (Man and Law) programme on Channel One Russia devoted to the Minsk metro bombing. In particular, Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Hal, the first deputy head of the investigative department of the Investigation Committee, and Lieutenant Colonel Vadzim Hryts, the head of the department for investigation of crimes against the established order of military service of the main investigative department of the Investigation Committee, were awarded with the medal for Distinction in Protecting Public Order.

The first deputy chairman of the Supreme Court, Alyaksandr Fedartsou, who conducted the trial and pronounced a death sentence to Kanavalau and Kavalyou, was given the title of the honourary lawyer of the Republic of Belarus two months after the trial.

Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavalyou were executed by shooting in March 2012.

The young men were sentenced to death for a terrorist attack. A homemade bomb exploded on April 11, 2011, at the Kastrychnitskaya metro station in Minsk. Eleven people died at the scene and four died later in hospitals. As many as 300 people were injured. Kavalyou was charged with complicity in the crime. Investigators say he knew that a terrorist attack was prepared, but didn't inform the police. Kavalyou pleaded not guilty at the trial.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Sheiman appointed head of Lukashenka's Property Management Directorate

Viktar Sheiman became a supply manager for the dictator.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka relieved Viktar Sheiman of his duties as president's special aide and appointed him head of the Property Management Directorate, the press service of the head of state reports.

Lukashenka relieved head of the Property Management Directorate Mikalai Korbut of his duties last Friday.

It should be reminded that Sheiman worked as Lukashenka's aide in the Belarusian Security Council until recently. Sheiman was appointed to a similar post as aide in the presidential administration amid the talks about a 25% cut in government staff.

Viktar Sheiman is suspected by the international community of being involved in kidnappings and killings of Belarusian opposition leaders. He still remains among the closest friends of the dictator.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

MFA attacks the USA because of sanctions

Official Minsk accused the USA of violating the international obligations.

Andrei Savinykh voiced the position on the programme Kontury on ONT TV channel. He said that, according to the memorandum about the security guarantees provided for by Belarus’ joining the Agreement on nuclear non-proliferation, signed in Budapest in 1994, the USA has voluntarily taken the legally binding obligations.

“Precisely they obliged themselves not to apply the measures of economic coercion in any circumstances”, - Andrei Savinykh noted, Telegraph reports.

However the USA has violated its obligations, having failed to follow the legally binding agreement, he believes.

In Andrei Savinykh’s opinion, it is a serious violation, which “undermines the authority of the USA itself”.

The MFA’s press-secretary noted that in the spheres where the parties pull out of political clichés, “the dialogue builds fairly smooth” and gave an example of the joint control over the non-proliferation of nuclear weapon.

Belarusians are cooperating with the Americans quite constructively today on the control area linked with the movement of nuclear materials across Belarus’ border, Andrei Savinykh said. “They see Belarus’ role here, we have a serious transit potential. This cooperation is in in the interest of our country, the USA, and the whole world. He easily find points of contact here”, - he emphasize.

The press-secretary of the Belarusian MFA believes that these principles must be applied to other spheres as well.

Andrei Savinykh said that despite the USA’s sanctions against Belarus, the trade turnover accounted for 700 million dollars last year. Belarus imports complex technical equipment for the re-equipment of its enterprises.

“The trade balance is of interest for the USA, we import much more than we export to the American market”, - the MFA’s press secretary said.

According to him, the Belarusian export to the USA is partly limited because of the sanctions and Belarus something to offer to the Americans. He noted that the exports of informational services is actively developing and the growth accounts for more than 60% a year. “We could also develop more substantially in other spheres as well”, - the MFA’s press-secretary believes.

We would remind that in 2012 the US adopted a new package of sanctions against Belarusian officials and representatives of enforcing agencies, on whom visa and financial restrictions were imposed. The sanctions were introduced against a number of enterprises as well.

The sanctions will not be lifted until all the political prisoners are released in Belarus.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Yarmoshyna awarded for “strengthening democracy”

The Praesidium of the “council of the republic” adopted the appropriate decree on January 14.

The chairwomen of the Belarusian Central Election Commission (CIS) was awarded with a diploma of the “national assembly” for “her service to the development of legislation, strengthening democracy and activity to secure civil rights and liberties”.

The appropriate decree is expected to be approved by the “house of representatives”, Euroradio reports.

None elections in Belarus have been recognised by the international community since 1996. CIS head Yarmoshyna was banned from visiting the EU and the US in 2004 for electoral frauds. Travel restrictions were also imposed on almost 200 Belarusian officials in 2010.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Authorities provoke overthrow by nomenclatura

Prosecution of directors and officials may have a bitter end for the regime.

This opinion was expressed by Leanid Zaika, the head of Strategy analytical centre as he commented on initiating a criminal case against a former director of Mogilevdrev wood processing company, Salidarnast reports.

“I don't think that wood processing plants are especially bad or that criminals run them,” the economist says. “They are ordinary directors and engineers. 700 million dollars and a decision to upgrade the sector are 15 years late. It should have been carried out in 1996-1997, when the similar upgrading processes were held in Russia and Ukraine. Now we buy component parts from our neighbours. It's not wise to put a gun to directors' heads and press on them after 15 years, though they asked themselves to leave them a part of profits for upgrading. I was present at such meetings during visits of World Bank's missions. Everyone was asking to allow leaving a slice of profits for upgrading.”

The expert says the authorities squeezed everything from the furniture industry and decided to punish it now.

“The Belarusian model was the most effective exporting cluster in the 1990s,” Leanid Zaika notes. “They suddenly realised the situation 15 years later and began to harass specialists. From a historical point of view, they made a strategic mistake in the furniture sector. They ignored it completely and were just bleeding it white. The government made mistakes. Companies asked to give them time to recover. I sympathise with directors. These criminal cases should have been initiated against those who were in the government at that time.”

Zaika thinks it is both silly and dangerous to initiate criminal cases against top managers of wood processing companies.

“It's impractical and dangerous to open such criminal cases against executive officers. Officials didn't realise it yet or they are working against the president. It was announced that 13,000 officials will be cut. Directors of enterprises faced harassment. Such actions can provoke an overthrow organised by the nomenclatura,” Leanid Zaika sums up.

It should be reminded that criminal cases were initiated against a former director and three managers of Mogilevdrev wood processing company.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Optimistic about Belarus?

It is okay to be hopeful for change in Belarus – not because the opposition is strong, but because the regime is looking weak

Heads in Brussels and elsewhere are sore with scratching. Over the past 21 years, haphazard combinations of carrots, sticks, tricks and fireworks have all failed. Alyaksandr Lukashenka remains in power in Belarus. That is a dark disgrace for Europe.

It is worth remembering that out of nine opposition candidates in the 2010 election, seven were arrested. Some were tortured and Mikola Statkevich is still in prison. Also behind bars are Paval Seviarynets and Vasil Parfiankou, Zmitser Dashkevich and Eduard Lobau. A particular scandal is the jailing of Ales Bialiatski, a human-rights campaigner who was prosecuted thanks to information supplied (apparently in error) by the Lithuanian and Polish authorities.

The release from prison in April of Andrei Sannikau, another opposition leader, to asylum in Britain, cheered his friends. But exile acts as a safety valve for the regime. Dozens of its most dedicated foes are fulminating abroad, not campaigning at home. Exiled oppositions have a generally poor track record in toppling dictatorships. Worse, the Belarus cause is divided between supporters of the Belarus National Council (a vestigial but symbolically important relic of the short-lived state of 1918) and other groupings.

As a sizzling new report from Index on Censorship, a London-based campaign group, makes clear, the regime is tightening the screws in cyberspace too: blocking sites that offer critical material, or knocking them out with DDOS attacks (automated swamping). In some cases, as the Dutch liberal MEP Marietje Schaake has admirably highlighted, Western companies sell the equipment that enables repression.

I have been following Belarus since my first visit there in 1990. But for all the gloom I have rarely felt so optimistic. This is not because the opposition is strong, but because the regime is looking weak. The most important news is that Lukashenka's popularity has plunged – to about 30%, according to independent polls. State television remains firmly in his grip. A documentary last month called “Pseudo-modernism”, demonised the ‘partnership for modernisation', the European Union's stalled technocratic wheeze. It exemplified the regime's instinctive recourse to Soviet-style propaganda. But it no longer seems to have the same effect. The economy survives only thanks to cheap loans from Russia (and, increasingly, support from China).

The big problem for those wanting political and economic change in Belarus over the past 20 years has been that the public was not ready for it. The disruption of ‘shock therapy' in Poland and the economic upheavals in the Baltic states, as well as the immiseration of much of the Russian population in the 1990s all struck ominous chords. Belarus was in the heart of what Timothy Snyder, the Yale historian, calls the “Bloodlands” of Europe in the middle decades of the past century. A quiet dull life looks pretty attractive if the past is studded with horrors.

But memories of past traumas are fading, and appetite for change is growing. Rather as in Russia, the much-prized stability is beginning to look more like stagnation. Like Vladimir Putin with his he-man stunts, Lukashenka looks preposterous (not least for dotingly bringing his small son Kolya to all public events). Boredom is fertile soil for ridicule, which in turn destroys fear and stokes courage.

For outsiders, freezing the regime's dirty money abroad helps more than broad sanctions. Inviting Belarusians where possible to events in EU countries, and (for those foreigners able to get visas) visiting Belarus whenever possible, all help breach the sense of isolation that sustains the disgraceful regime.

Edward Lucas edits the international section of «The Economist», «European Voice»

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Iryna Khalip may face 2 years in prison if she leaves Belarus

Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, figured out if the journalist could leave Belarus.

We remind that Lukashenka said to a BelaPAN journalists during yesterday's press conference that the wife of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, who received political asylum in the UK, could leave Belarus.

“He says that I don't want to leave Belarus. I'd like to remind that it is continuation of the story that started with a question of Yevgeny Lebedev, the owner of The Independent and Evening Standard. He asked Lukashenka why Iryna Khalip could not go to Moscow. Lukashenka replied, if you remember, 'you can take her and go to Moscow right now'. He said I was free and could go.

In actual fact, control over me only tightened. The police visit me more often now.

When Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov came, he couldn't understand why there were no changes after the statement. He visited the corrections office of the Partyzanski district police department and talked the office head, who explained that I still had a conviction. My sentence is suspended for two years. The conviction wasn't removed, because Lukashenka didn't pardon me. How can I go abroad? An officer of the corrections office told Dmitry Muratov that if I go abroad, to Moscow for example, I will be sent to a women's prison in Homel,” Iryna Khalip told Radio Svaboda.

It should be reminded that the journalist was given a two-year suspended sentence for participating in a rally against the falsified presidential elections on December 19, 2010.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

David Kramer: Anything may cause dictatorship's collapse

It may be elections, ill-treatment of people or external events.

The Belarusian opposition should be united to express their political programme, but the unity should be sincere, because the imitation will only lead to the crisis of the alternative governance. The Belarusian opposition leaders should draw right conclusions from the activity of the Czech Charter 77 movement and use its experience in the Belarusian reality.

President of the National Endowment for Democracy Carl Gershman and president of Freedom House David Kramer summed up the results of the open discussion “Toward Democracy in Belarus: Charter 77 Heritage”, the Russian service of Voice of America reports.
Carl Gershman drew attention to the words of former Czech ambassador to the US Martin Palous about The Parallel Polis essay written by Vaclav Benda in the late 1970s. Charter 77 members doubted whether they should struggle for fundamental human rights or present an alternative political programme. Benda suggested creating alternative institutions, such as Charter 77, which became a school of democracy, where people gathered and learnt how to create civil society, the president of the National Endowment for Democracy said.

Carl Gershman emphasised the discussion was useful for modern Belarus, because the people of the country should understand they need to be involved in political, economic, social, civil, educational and other processes.

David Kramer stressed the Belarusian opposition should be ready for any unexpected things that can bring the Lukashenka regime down.

The opposition should be consolidated, but any artificial unity will not last long, David Kramer notes. The opposition should be ready for any unexpected things, because one never knows what can bring the regime down – elections, ill-treatment or external events that have a direct impact of processes inside the country. The Freedom House president is confident the preparation for the time after Lukashenka has never been so important.
In David Kramer's opinion, providing Belarusians with objective information about the events in the country is among main goals.

He called not to forget that Lukashenka's government controlled all information flows, so most Belarusians hear only filtered news presenting Lukashenka in the most favourable light and tarnishing the West by calling it an enemy that wants to harm the people of Belarus. He emphasised the importance of providing Belarus with objective information to let all people in the country, not only young people and those living in Minsk, know that the problem lies with their leader and the West only tries to help them to free themselves from his rule.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Andrei Sannikov: Don’t provide for Belarusian dictatorship

Both Russia and Europe should look in the true face of Lukashenka’s regime.

Andrei Sannikov, former presidential candidate and coordinator of the civil campaign European Belarus said about it in an interview to Deutsche Welle.

According to Sannikov, the tough sanctions of the EU don’t affect the Belarusian people. They are dangerous for the dictatorship that projects prison repressions on the entire society.

Sannikov was arrested on the night of December 20, 2010, right after the mass protest rally against the fake elections result was suppressed in Minsk. In May 2011 the court found Sannikov guilty of organizing mass disorders and convicted him to a five-year term in a reformatory with a restricted regime. The human rights organization Amnesty International proclaimed Andrei Sannikov a prisoner of consciousness.

In April 2012 Sannikov was released on parole after a decree of president Aliaksandar Lukashenka. In September 2012 he was granted the status of refugee in the UK. His wife, journalist Iryna Khalip, also accused of organizing mass disorders, remains in Minsk under home arrest.

- You are watching the situation in Belarus from a distance. How does it look like?

- In Belarus, the economic and political situations are insane. Even officials from the government realize how badly the country needs reforms. And yet, everything what is being done today leads nowhere.

Fear stands behind the powers’ unwise actions because they don’t have the people’s support anymore. However, the regime still hopes to get help from Russia and from the West, by selling petrol products. The dictatorship has a very primitive plan: it needs money, not economy that can earn it. The loans are used to feed the repression machine, and nothing is left for the production.

- But Moscow offers Minsk financial support within the Common economic space and the future Eurasian union. Should Belarus move towards deeper Eurasian integration?

- I don’t know what Eurasia is, what rules it has, what political mechanisms function there. I know what the European Union is, I understand its principles, and I advocate for Belarus’ integration to Europe which at the same time is beneficial for Russia.

Right now I can see that the relations between Moscow and Minsk are built on the same insane principle. Russia wants to control the Belarusian economy, while the Belarusian powers treat it only as a game, a search for money. But this integration discourse and refusal to cooperate with the West gives the regime the funds. I am convinced however that the Kremlin realizes that Lukashenka is not a suitable business partner.

- Some Western experts say that a multipolar world is already a reality and that no boosting methods, such as sanctions, are needed. What do you think?

- It merely shows that Aliaksandar Lukashenka has a strong lobby in the West. Dictatorships can be useful even for civilized countries, in case businesses try to make quick money not in a most transparent way. The Belarusian powers give them such an opportunity, and the lobbyists work in this direction. It is especially obvious in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

But where are these experts? They are in comfortable democratic states where their rights are protected, where nothing threatens them, where they will not go to prison for their ideas. But they should try living in Belarus as regular citizens, spending some time in prison, where I saw innocent people being humiliated and treated in a way that even criminals don’t deserve.

The Belarusian regime projects prison experience on the entire society. The punishment system is implemented everywhere; today you don’t have to be an oppositionist to get to prison, it is enough to upload photos online, to express an opinion in an Internet blog.

- The Belarusian opposition is trying to decide how to select one candidate for the presidential elections 2015. What could bring the Belarusian opposition together?

- Free elections held under international scrutiny could improve the situation in the country. But let’s ask ourselves if it is possible. Today the right thing to do would be to change the logics of the actions and to take for a fact that there is no election process in the country. And that means that the opposition’s attempts to find common denominator for the forces of different social weight and potential will be ineffective.

The high level of the society’s solidarity that was demonstrated despite the violent repressions is a lesson that the opposition should have learnt from the year 2010. Today it is crucial to unite around solidarity with the political prisoners, it is crucial to help their families. It is the most valuable thing to preserve. We shouldn’t start playing the game of one candidate – it will only put the opposition under even harder control from the special services.

- How can the European Union help the democratic community in Belarus?

- First of all, the EU should treat the dictatorship in a proper way. On the one hand, the regime is labeled “Europe’s last dictatorship”; on the other hand, the Europeans try to negotiate with this last dictator in a civilized manner. But these are two mutually exclusive things.

I disagree with the opinions expressed in the West and by a part of the opposition, that large-scale sanctions against the regime can push Belarus closer to Russia. How can we discuss the effects of something we have not yet tested? Meanwhile, the Belarusian export gets the biggest part of its profits from the European Union, which Minsk proudly reports.

Stop whining that the tough measures hurt the Belarusian people. Nothing hurts more than the dictatorship. The situation is abnormal not only for the Belarusians; it is dangerous for the entire democratic world. Dictators from different spheres - illegal trade of weapon, drugs or human organs, human trafficking - get along very quickly. This undermines the international security, everyone’s big concern. In other words, Europe should stop providing for the regime, otherwise it will strengthen the axis of evil.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

UCP activist gets warning

Alina Litvinchuk, an activist of the United Civil Party (UCP), received a warning from the Brest region prosecutor's office for violating the rules of cooperation with the mass media.

Accusations against her are based on Alisa Pol's articles on Radio Racyja website, though a prosecutor's assistant failed to explain what relation those articles had to Alina Litvinchuk, the press service of the United Civil Party reports.

Alina didn't receive an official summons to the prosecutor's office, but she decided to visit the prosecutor voluntary to find out why anonymous people have been calling her for the last months, policemen tried to enter her flat and people in mufti questioned her neighbours. She received invitation to appear in the prosecutor's office from Brestski Kuryer editor Mikalai Alyaksandrau. The activists decided to see the prosecutor, though this form of invitation doesn't meet the law.

Prosecutor's assistant A. Tochka gave her a warning against cooperation with foreign mass media.

The prosecutor's assistant advised to appeal to the police regarding strange telephone calls to Alina and her parents and questioning of neighbours by people in mufti, though the activist was told in the police department that she should contact the prosecutor's office over the problem.

”Assistant of prosecutor Tochka, Bakharava, showed some printed articles from the website and a copy of the warning as materials of the case,” Litvinchuk said. “She didn't show the file and give the number of the case. I wrote that I disagreed with the warning.”

The activist and lawyers from the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) plans to file a complaint to the prosecutor's office in connection with Alina's disagreement with the warning and a complaint about actions by law enforcement officers (telephone calls to her and her parents, visits by the police, who were looking for her in Brest and tried to enter her flat and questioning of neighbours by people in mufti).

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka will raise the salaries of poor officials

“The most loyal” must remain there in the state apparatus after the staff reduction.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka considers it possible to shorten the number of state officials by a quarter in the nearest six months. The ones must stay, who serve the people and the state with good faith and fidelity.

“It is inevitable that we must shorten the staff approximately by a quarter. Let’s start with that”, - Lukashenka noted on Friday at a meeting on the issues of the optimization of the structure, number and functions of the state agencies, Interfax reports.

The dictator believes that it is necessary to “get rid of those, who does not try hard enough”. “Those should stay in the state apparatus, who try hard and work well. Those, who serve the people and the state with good faith and fidelity, should work in the state apparatus”, - Lukashenka stated. According to him, “those must leave, who does not want to work or simply got there by a mistake”. “We do not want to offend anyone, it does not mean that, if a decision is taken tomorrow, we will have to throw people to the street in a day. No”, - the ruler emphasized.

Thereupon Lukashenka suggested “to, let’s say, in a half-a-year time to find new employment for these people”. “This is what the essence of the reduction is, but not that we will throw the people to the street with one ink stroke, breaking their lives. By this action we should not set a decent part of the society against us”, - he explained.

At the same time he admitted that “we have inadmissibly low salaries of state officials”. “This is nothing like a salary. We have some heads of enterprises, which abuse dotation, or managers, who can do nothing, who earn up to 20 million roubles ($2.3 thousand - Interfax) and add bonuses to that for themselves. And state officials, who do work, do not earn even a half of that. The salaries are inadmissibly low”, - he stated.

Together with that he noted: “You understand the psychology of our people. I am not afraid that I will have to agree on the salary raise for state officials. At the same time I set the task: let’s optimize the numbers of the officials, so the people understand us”, - Lukashenka said.

He also expressed a disagreement with the suggestions to provide benefits and privileges for the officials who are about to be fired. “There is a commission that introduces suggestions on a whole number of benefits and payments, privileges and payments. There will be no benefit, privileges or payments to the dismissed”, - the dictator claimed. “What guarantees, or benefits can there be for the people, who are fired today and cannot work in the state apparatus because of their condition”, - Lukashenka noted. “You will have to find a job for them. There are people who do not see themselves in the state apparatus; those would rather work in a schools, other organizations, in manufacturing. SO they should be sent there”, - Lukashenka said.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

David Kramer: Eastern Partnership summit without Belarusian authorities

The Freedom House president calls not to invite representatives of the Lukashenka regime to the summit in Vilnius.

David Kramer noted during a discussion in Lithuania on Wednesday that representatives of the Belarusians authorities should not visit the event in the current situation. He said he would like to see civil society and human rights activists as representatives of Belarus, Interfax news agency reports.

He said it would be unreal not to speak with the government at all, but people from the government should not be given such a platform as Eastern Partnership.

Belarus is among six EU neighbours included in the Eastern Partnership programme. The EU and the US imposed sanctions on Belarusian governmental officials accusing them of the crackdown on the opposition and human rights violations.

The EU and Eastern Partnership summit is scheduled for November 2013 in Vilnius. Lithuanian representatives expect leaders of EU biggest countries to attend the event.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Policeman shot dead by Minsk resident

The man was considered to be a calm and normal person before.

A shooting on Mashinistov Street in Minsk (which goes along the railway track in the Brest direction) ended with deaths, TUT.by learnt from eyewitnesses on January 8.

Local dwellers say they noticed a man who was shooting at dogs in the evening in a private housing district near the Minsk silicate plant. The police were called. Two police officers arrived and tried to detain the man. He opened fire on them in response.

One of the policemen was killed with two shots, the other one was wounded in his leg. The man then went to his garage and killed himself by shooting in the head.

Eyewitnesses say their neighbour was not criminally inclined or strange. They describe him as a calm and normal person.

Criminal investigators from Minsk's Maskouski district police department and the Investigation Committee are working at the crime scene. Press departments of law enforcement agencies decline to give any comments.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

2013. Bad year for dictators

The number of enemies of freedom will decrease this year.

This opinion is proposed by Die Zeit (Germany), which made a top list of world dictators, populists and autocrats. Belarus’s head Alyaksandr Lukashenka is among them.

Bad times come for dictators. Many of them were ousted, overthrown, killed or tried in the recent years. These events all over the world gave a new hope that people will stand up to get rid of tyrants.

There are still many despots, autocrats and populists in power in many countries. Not all of them are ankle-deep in blood, throw people into jail, torture and kidnap them. But all of them defy the law, manipulate the media, harm democracy and freedom, harass minority groups and incite violence. No one would regret if they quitted voluntary. Almost all of them, if things went in the right way, would appear on the dock.

Besides the Belarusian dictator, Die Zeit has leaders of other countries on the list: Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Bahrain’s Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovich, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang.

The list also includes al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

“Some of these people will be deposed in 2013. Let’s hope it will be done without too much bloodshed. It will be a good year,” the authors of the article are confident.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Pavel Seviarynets: the European Union must explain its position

The possible cooperation of the EU with Belarusian police causes bewilderment with the politician.

“The European Union surely needs to explain its position. If it is the matter of assistance to the Eastern Partnership countries, then if this particular program applies to Belarus. If it does, then what ways of cooperation are provided for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and may be even for KGB?”, - the co-chairman of the organizational committee for creation of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party political prisoner Pavel Seviarynets said
According to the politician, the position of the European Union comes across as ambiguous:

“All in all, Belarus is a separate case. And if the Europeans think of establishing democracy in our country cooperating with the agencies that prosecute dissidents, than I completely do not understand that. When it turns out that the Belarusian democratic movement is being prosecuted by the means of the resources provided by the European Union, like it was the case with the scandal about German police assisting Belarusian enforcing agencies, than there is an ambiguous situation. On the one hand the European Union demands to stop the repressions and on the other hand it physically supports them. That is why clarity is needed”.

Pavel Seviarynets is sure that any assistance to the Belarusian agencies may be used for repressions:

“Stefan Fule’s statement is very ambiguous and, I stress that once again, he needs to directly say – if they will assist the Belarusian agencies, than what will the assistance be? If, for example, it is the assistance in catching the illegals and fighting the human traffic, than what exactly are the programs, which resources exactly will the European Union provide for that? It is possible to create something peaceful and something against peaceful protesters out of the same raw materials”.

“I do not think that the Europeans want to legitimize the assistance to the Belarusian police. At least, I do not want to believe in that. But in order for there not to be any suspicions, the Europeans should clearly and transparently state what they mean”, - the politician summarized.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Andrei Sannikov: “Democratic Belarus needs help of international community”

The leader of European Belarus civil campaign was interviewed by BBC Radio.

Two years passed since the Belarusian opposition leader Andrei Sannikov challenged the country's long-serving autocratic president Alyaksandr Lukashenka in an election, which the man often dubbed Europe's last dictator won by a large margin.

Andrei Sannikov took part in a post-election demonstration to complain about voter irregularities. He was arrested and placed in a penal colony for 16 months. After his release early this year, he left Belarus and fled to the UK, where he now lives with his sister. His journalist wife Iryna Klalip remains under house arrest with their young son in the capital of Belarus, Minsk. When president Lukashenka was asked about her case in a recent interview, he signed a letter apparently ordering her to be released, but nothing has come of that just yet.
BBC journalists visited Andrei Sannikov in his new home just outside of London to talk about his and his family's experience and the current state of democracy in Belarus.

Let's remind our listeners first of all, what has brought you here? Why did you come here?

I came here and I had to apply for asylum, because I think my home was quite dangerous for me and my family. It was a difficult decision, but it had to be taken.

And remain dangerous for your family.

Yes, definitely. It is the most difficult for me, also because my wife is actually under house arrest. I hope that with me away it will be a little bit safer for her.

You were in prison for 16 months after the election, after what happened in end of 2010. Tell us about that time, tell us about your experience in prison.

Well first of all, I was imprisoned for political reasons. Me, my friends and colleagues and other people were imprisoned for peacefully demonstrating against falsification during the election. It was the most difficult time of my life there.

Let's say they created very difficult and unbearable conditions in the cell. They didn't let me sleep at night switching the light and shouting at me. I was searched personally. They stripped me naked. I was standing in a very cold room for quite a long time. They were shouting at me and beating their truncheons on the walls, sounding electric shockers. They were quite skilful at making you, I would say, very uncomfortable, that's an understatement.

The hardest thing for me was when they threatened my wife and my kid. My wife was in the same prison, because we were first brought to the detention centre which is customary for the demonstrations. It wasn't the first time I was there. Quite frankly, I was relieved when they took me away and my wife was left there.

Why were you relieved?

Because I thought she would stay there and it meant in a couple of days or maybe the next day she would be released because of our little child, who was only three at that time. And that's why I was relieved. Only in a couple of days I learnt that she is in the same prison and then, after I was released, I learnt she actually was in the neighbouring cell.

But you didn't know that at that time.

I guessed. I guessed because I heard her voice couple of times. And then I learnt she was there. It was prohibited to speak when you are taken out of the cell, but she did it on purpose, speaking in a loud voice for me to hear that she was there.

You were eventually released. Why did they decide to release you?

I think in respect of the fact that I formally applied for clemency, and I did it in a very critical moment, because there was a danger to my life. But I think it was because of the pressure of the international community, because of the measures taken by the European Union, because the governments, including the British government, demanded very strongly the release of political prisoners.

You wife remains under house arrest?

Yes.

What kind of pressure is being put? Is the pressure being put to release her?

Well I think it's not enough, because actually probably people and political leaders do not know what it means to be in such conditions as Iryna is today. Just yesterday I spoke with her over Skype, and it's not for the first time when it happened this very moment, the doorbell sounded and the police came to check on her.

Have you ever had second thoughts about leaving her and your son?

Of course. But again, we did discuss it. That was our decision that it will be safer for them.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka seems if anything more emboldened at the moment, he gave a recent interview where he talked proudly about being called a dictator. How can anybody take him on in these circumstances, effectively?

I did run for president not to become a president. The goal was to change the situation in the country. You said it yourself that Lukashenka is in power and it's a dictatorship. In this way, no way I failed. But what happened on the 19th of December, 2010, was not only brutal dispersal of the demonstration, beating and bloodshed by the government forces, but also the feeling of the people that saw the hope, that saw the chance for the changes and that felt themselves free and united in this freedom. That was a beautiful moment in our history. I don't think that will be erased that easily.

There is no sign of the Belarus spring, winter, summer, autumn... It is not the same sense of people willing to go out, because if they do they suspect the same will happen what happened to you.

Yes, but at the same time that's what the regime is afraid of most of all. Yes, there is no sign, but I would say the absurdity of the situation is the good sign it will not last for long.

What you gonna take for things to change?

I can tell you one thing that without the help of the international community it will be almost impossible to achieve anything in Belarus.

And you are upset or you don't think enough is being done, certainly as far as your wife's case concern, to put pressure on Belarus?

Today the world has changed. Belarus's business ties, economic ties trade ties with the West are more extensive than with Russia. And in terms of trade turnover, the European Union accounts for a larger part and Russia and Ukraine for a lesser part of it. I think there cannot be fair trade and fair business with Belarus with Lukashenka in power. The European Union first of all has all the leverage to talk to Lukashenka at least to release the political prisoners.

There are lobbyists of dictators in the European Union as well. There are lobbyists to the regimes in business circles, because it's lucrative, you know. It's lucrative to have deals with such regimes. I am convinced that most of the activities that are banned by international law, like human trafficking, like organised crime, like arms sales, illegal arms sales, are done with the help of the regimes like that. Because they provide loopholes in the international restrictions system.

How do you explain what is happening to your son? He is five years old. How do you explain why his father can't be there?

I've never said to him, neither my wife, my parents-in-law and my mother, that I was in prison. I think he guessed. After prison, he didn't recognise me first, because I was without my beard. But then one morning when he touched my face, saw my bristles were growing and calmed down. Now he accepted and doesn't ask questions. We do talk over Skype and over the phone. At least he knows that I am within reach.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

”Serfdom” can be introduced on any enterprise

None sector of industry can feel safe from introduction of compulsory labour.

Alyaksandr Yarashuk, the head of the Belarusian Congress of Independent Trade Unions, spoke with Euroradio about consequences of Lukashenka's decree No. 9.

What rights of workers does the decree violate?

Firstly, the decree introduces compulsory work. Only one country in the world, Myanmar, had enforced work. People were even chained to their workplace. We have other chains – legal ones. Elements of compulsory labour were noticed in Decree No. 29, when workers were obliged to sign employment agreements. Decree No. 9 in fact violates the constitution of the country, which guarantees freedom to employment, dismissal and the right to choose a job; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees there rights, was violated; Convention No. 105 of the International Labour Organisation on abolition of forced labour, which was ratified by our country and Convention No. 122 on employment, which also was also ratified by Belarus. These violations cannot be called otherwise than defiance to the international community.

Will Europe respond to Decree No. 9 with sanctions?

The International Labour Organisation has the most effective leverage today that can be applied to the Belarusian government. It is only due to the principled position of the International Labour Organisation in relation to the rights of members of the independent trade union and workers' rights in general that the European Union cancelled trade preferences for Belarus in 2007. I met with ILO head Guy Ryder and we discussed the situation of workers of wood processing plants. We are concerned about the situation. I can ensure you that the ILO will turn attention to the situation. As for particular measures, I'd prefer not to make forecasts. I'd like to remind that the ILO once appealed to the international community asking to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar as a response to forced labour. It was just one time for 93 years of the history of the organisation. Myanmar had to take steps to restore workers' rights and political liberalisation started in the country.

Is the wood processing sector so important for the state that Lukashenka decided to make this step? Can we expect a similar decree to be released in relation to workers of other sectors of industry?

Compulsory work can be introduced on any enterprise in any sector.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Tortures at a police department: gas masks, horizontal stands, gun in the mouth

Sadists in uniform force testimonies out of people by all means.

We are already used to the fact that “political prisoners” are beaten during manifestations and at police stations. But common people also suffer from policemen, Radio Svaboda reports.

“A woman took me to the room 235. She immediately handcuffed me and started beating me: she was swearing all the time, beat me with her legs and arms. And she said: if testimonies needed, than all the drivers from the parking would be against you, because you steal accumulators from cars. She goes out, another one comes in – and all the same – they beat me like that for three hours. Than they put me into a horizontal stand and I lay on the floor for about three hours, also being beaten”, - Vasili Sarochyk tells about his detention in the Lenin district’s police department in Minsk.

At the end of the previous year it became known that the Investigatory Committee stopped the preliminary investigation against the policemen, who beat the guard Sarochyk. Vasili Sarochyk himself says that he did not receive any documents, but he will go “till the end” with that.

After the case of Vasili Sarochyk they started again to talk out loud that they use tortures in Belarusian police. A human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich is sure that it is impossible to know how widely the Belarusian police use tortures, but there are really a lot of cases like that.

The leader of Platforma Andrei Bandarenka confirms that too. It was exactly the web-site of that organization that first posted the testimonies of Vasili Sarochyk: “No one wants to tell. Leave alone to sue”.

It is practically impossible to proceed with such a case to the trial in the Belarusian conditions. For example, at the beginning of December Pavel Plaksa was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment. He was accused of robbery. However Plaksa denied his testimonials in court. He claimed that he had been tortured at the same Lenin district’s police department. They called the ambulance to the police department three times and the beatings were registered by doctors. As a result the statements of Pavel Plaksa, who was already condemned, were left without attention.

Gulin’s case

“The guy’s face was going blue right before my eyes, hematomas were swelling out – and they said: nothing happened”, - an artist Mikhail Gulin revolts.

There was no success in proving the beatings of the 18-year old participant of an artistic performance Uladzislau Luk’yanchyk either. Mikhail Gulin together with three volunteers were detained in the center of Minsk at the beginning of December. They all state that at the Central police department a warrant officer Uladzimir Nahodzka beat dark-skinned Uladzislau Luk’yanchyk to the extent of a brain concussion.

“He (the warrant officer Uladzimir Nahodzka – ed.)told him “Hey, Zimbabwe, get going”. When I made a note to him, he said “We will now apply an individual program to you”, - Gulin said.

Another participant of the project – a photographer and camerawoman Tatiana Gaurylchyk – says that they twisted her arms and handcuffed her at the police station.

“When we were sitting there, a most savage case happened. Policemen took a homeless person to the next room. And we heard how they were beating him and his terrible screams. After that he simply crawled on all fours to the rooms for detainees”, - Gulin says.

The court of the Central district decided that the artists were detained illegally. But the court did not appeal on the policemen’s actions and did not file a criminal case against them – “no evidence”.

"Vitebsk case-2"

“It all started in 2009 before the Slavic Bazar. They were expecting Lukashenka to come, - a Vitebsk journalist Grigoriy Grak tells. – They violently killed a man behind the regional hospital. There were more than 30 stabbings, the Adam’s apple was torn out”.

In a week police detained “the criminals”. They appeared to be several teenage gymnasium students of 16-17 years old. Two were later brought charges against and another one gave himself up.

Khachatur Khachaturian, the father of Aliaksandr Loginau, one of the accused, does not conceal the emotions: “One of the guys is an orphan, two of them are from one-parent families. To make two children confess a brutal murder! What one has to do for that? Only the third one did not take the guilt and then they had it all falling apart. When the children were questions with lawyers and parents present, as it was supposed to be, then they, of course, denied their previous testimonies. It was awful what happened there. They put convicted murderers into the cell with the 16-year olds. Isn’t it a violation? The investigator Shchetsko should have been in prison now, but he is the deputy head of the Investigatory Committee for the Vitebsk region. It is interesting, by the way! Almost everyone, who was involved in our children’s case, were transferred from the prosecutor’s office to the Investigatory Committee”.

There was a trial in 2010.

“I was there at several session. They told how they had been tortured at the Pervomaiskiy police department in Vitebsk. Not only gas masks were there. They put a gun into one guy’s mouth. They put them on a table and said: we will put a screwdriver somewhere if you do not confess. They told that all in the court. There were a lot of testimonies, the people present had their hair standing up”, - Grigoriy Grak told.

The Mogilev regional court found the guys innocent and released them. Aliaksandr Loginau never admitted the guilt.

“I personally was proud and am proud of him, - Khachatur Sambatavich says. – He never testified against his friends either, and did not took the guilt. They would force anyone there. It all started with the Mikhasevich’s case. I personally know the guy’s from the Mikhasevich’s case: Kavaliou, Pashkevich, Valera Garely, he left the prison blind and died shortly”.

They all remember well the case of the maniac Gennadiy Mikhasevich in Vitebsk. From 1971 to 1985 he killed 36 women. And the Soviet police destroyed the lives of 14 innocent people when looking for the criminal.

After the explosion in Vitebsk in September 2005 the brothers Vitali and Yuriy Murashka were detained as the ones accused of it. They also testified that police forced testimonies out of them by tortures. The prosecutor’s office did not listen to the brothers. Although they were released from prison and even paid a compensation.

Aliaksandr Loginau did the obligatory military service and now is studying at a university in absentia. At the end of the year it became known that the Investigatory Committee stopped the criminal case against the policemen from the Vitebsk’s Pervomaiskiy police department.

Khachatur Khachaturian, however, is not going to stop: “The investigator Shilau has been dealing with those beatings for two years. And then what? He is now in the Investigatory Committee! And at the beginning of the investigation he shouted “I found a torture room – there are gas masks, and sharpened metal bars, and handcuffs there!”

“I told myself that I will not let those animals sleep calmly, - Khachatur Khachaturian says. – I appeal and will appeal everywhere. They should know it, their neighbors, friends. They children should know at school. So they would spit in the eyes of those animals”.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

EU to cooperate with Belarusian police?

The European Union will cooperate with the law-enforcement agencies of the the Eastern Partnership countries.

“The Eastern Partnership Police Cooperation Programme will promote police cooperation on issues related to cross-border crime between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries and among the EaP countries themselves,” Interfax news agency reports with a link to the EU Delegation to Belarus.

“Trust in law enforcement agencies is one of the cornerstones needed to build a sustainable democracy and we believe that cooperation in the police services can greatly enhance law and order in the countries of our Eastern neighbours. The Eastern Partnership Police Cooperation Programme aims at ambitious but important targets," Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle said.

Füle noted: “Law enforcement reform – including the police reform – is one of the main benchmarks against which the EU will assess progress and adapt its levels of support to our Eastern partners.”

The EU Delegation to Belarus informs that the police cooperation programme includes study tours, exchange programmes, training and meetings to “increase knowledge and skills of Eastern neighbours' police in police management and fight against cross-border crime”.

It should be reminded about last year's scandal relating to cooperation between the German and Belarusian police. German federal police chief Matthias Seeger was dismissed in June 2012. He was accused of having contacts with the Belarusian government.

According to Der Tagesspiegel, the Belarusian law-enforcement agencies were allowed to watch anti-riot actions by the German police in November 2010. The German police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber batons. As many as 500 Belarusian policemen were trained in Germany and Belarus. The German media note that the federal police and the federal criminal police had trained their Belarusian colleagues, including border guards, since 2008. The German Interior Ministry acted in coordination with the MFA. The cooperation started after Minsk “demonstrated a signal for readiness for legal reforms” and had the aim of “promoting democracy and the rule of law”.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau